


beautiful scars on critical veins

by Anonymous



Series: Sammy's Ship Wheel [2]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV), The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Getting Together, M/M, Past Abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:21:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24728155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: After an incident involving Shane, Carl's living with his dad again, recovering from an injury, and working through way too much fucking trauma. He's also maybe beginning a relationship with one of the agents that saved him.
Relationships: Aaron Hotchner/Carl Grimes
Series: Sammy's Ship Wheel [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1733914
Comments: 3
Kudos: 6
Collections: Anonymous





	beautiful scars on critical veins

**Author's Note:**

> Me?? Creating a new ship?? Yeah, that fits. Anyways I hope y'all enjoy this, I'm already obsessed with these two. Also a thanks to my beta, Jamie, who decided she also loves this ship and named it Catch.

This was a bad idea, Carl can’t stop fidgeting, this was a fucking horrible idea. Everything he’s done lately has been one big bad idea, starting with sending flowers to the office of Agent Aaron Hotchner, ending right here, in a coffee shop waiting for Agent Hotchner to come and reject him. Rick had been sure to tell him how stupid he is, “Carl he’s older than me.” or, “He was just doing his job.” or, “Your therapy has doubled since Shane, you don’t need more stress.” That one is Carl’s favorite, Shane’s existence is still hanging over his head even though the fucker’s dead now. 

He squeezes his coffee cup and thinks about leaving, Agent Hotchner probably won’t even show up, Carl’s just another kid the FBI saved. The door opens and Carl’s head shoots up the same way it has every time he’s heard that ding for the past fifteen minutes, this time it’s who he’s waiting for, Agent Hotchner wearing a suit that’s extremely out of place in the casual environment. He scans the room for a moment, spotting Carl at a table in the corner. Carl’s fidgeting gets worse as Agent Hotchner gets closer.

Carl can’t even maintain eye contact when Agent Hotchner sits across from him, this was a bad idea. 

“Hi,” Carl mumbles awkwardly, brushing a strand of hair from his face.

“It’s nice to see you again, Carl,” Agent Hotchner smiles kindly, “how have you been doing?” 

So he was right, he’s just another victim. He forces himself to look at the older man, “Better. My dad, uhm, he’s been on my ass about going to therapy.”

Agent Hotchner chuckles, the small smile looks out of place compared to the seriousness Carl’s seen, it’s a good look. Then his face goes back to serious, “Why’d you ask me here, Carl?”

“I wanted to say thank you for, well you know,” Carl avoids the mention of Shane, he tries not to think about him constantly.

“And the flowers?” 

“Two thank yous?” Carl weakly tries to explain, ending up asking a question. 

“Look, Carl,” Agent Hotchner starts, Carl braces himself for the incoming rejection, “I’m flattered, but I can’t give you what you want.”

“How do you know what I want?” Carl regrets it the second he says it.

“I’m a profiler, I’ve dug through your entire life,” he sighs, “I’m too old for you.”

“Agent Hotchner-”

“Aaron,” he interrupts,

“Aaron, I’m not a kid, I’m an adult, I know what I’m doing. Just, just give it a chance? If it’s just the age thing and you’re not completely repulsed by me,” Carl probably sounds depressingly desperate.

Agent Hotchner, _Aaron,_ gives him a look he can’t quite figure out and Carl’s expecting a second rejection, instead Aaron’s face softens, “Okay, but the coffee here sucks, there’s a better place not too far away.” Carl knows he’s smiling like an idiot, but he doesn’t care.

“How’d you get here?” Aaron asks.

“I walked,” he points to his bandaged eye, driving isn’t exactly an option for him anymore.

“Let’s go, I’ll drive you home after.” 

In the car, Aaron keeps sneaking glances at him, “I’d never be repulsed by you.”

“Thanks, I guess,” he laughs, tucking his hair back again.

That gets him another glance, but Aaron stays quiet, besides the tapping of his fingers on the steering wheel. The silence is surprisingly comfortable, he doesn’t feel the need to shove his foot in his mouth to fill it. 

When they get there, Aaron asks Carl what he wants, directing him to a corner table. While Aaron’s in line Carl gets a chance to (over)think, he hasn’t been on a date in four years, since the accident that took his eye. Maybe this really isn’t a good idea, he hasn’t been on a date since he was fucking sixteen, that won’t be very encouraging to Aaron, who already sees him as some damaged kid. 

“Coffee for your thoughts?” Aaron asks, setting Carl’s cup down in front of him.

“Is this a pity date?” Carl believes in ripping the bandaid off quickly.

“No,” that seems to be the end of it, “now try the coffee and tell me it's not better.”

Carl takes a sip and smiles at Aaron, “You care way too much about this coffee.” 

“You have to care about coffee with my job.” His dead serious tone has Carl laughing.

“How do you do that?” 

“Do what?” 

“You have two expressions, dead serious and _I’m smiling but you can barely tell.”_ Carl tries to mimic Aaron’s expression, but fails judging by Aaron’s uncharacteristic laugh.

“I smile, I promise,” he mumbles, taking a drink from his coffee.

Carl brushes his foot against Aaron’s underneath the table, earning an eyebrow raise, he chooses to ignore it, “So why aren't you working right now?”

“Technically I am, I just decided to take a break from paperwork.”

“Think my dad would disagree with me being a break.” He trails his foot higher up Aaron’s leg.

“You're bold,” Aaron says.

“What do you mean?” Carl feigns innocence, continuing his childish game of footsie.

Aaron looks like he's about to speak when his phone rings, he sighs, “Hotchner.”

He listens for a moment, “Alright, I'll be there soon.” He hangs up and gives Carl an apologetic look.

“Duty calls?” Carl asks, moving his foot from Aaron’s leg.

“Sorry, I'll drive you home.”

When they're just about at his house he breaks the silence of the ride, “Thank you.”

“Of course,” the car stops and he turns to Carl, “next time we’ll do this on my day off, no cases to ruin it.”

“Next time?” Carl asks hopefully, he genuinely didn't expect Aaron to deal with him.

“I like you, Carl, I'd like to do this again if you want to,” he does one of his kinda smiles.

“Yeah, I want to.” He stares at Aaron for a minute, tucking his hair behind his ear and awkwardly nodding at the house, “Bye Aaron, I have to go deal with my mother hen that's pretending he's not watching us through the window.” 

Carl gets to the door and hears Aaron drive away, he smiles, making eye contact with Rick, who's still standing in the window. He walks through the door, “I'm not a teenage girl, dad, don't need you supervising my return from a date.”

“So it _was_ a date?” Rick asks, trying to use the folded arms pose that worked on him when he was a little kid. 

“Dad, calm down,” he swipes Rick’s stupid hat, putting it on, “and don't even think about threatening him, he definitely outranks you.” Rick tries to protest, but Carl walks away before he can say anything.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos appreciated <333


End file.
